1. Know your risk factors. Smoking, high cholesterol and/or blood pressure, diabetes, family history and being overweight all increase your risk of suffering a heart attack. If you have any of these risk factors, it’s important to be aware that you are at an increased chance of having at a heart attack and know the symptoms.
2. Know the symptoms. The most common heart attack symptoms in both men and women are chest pain and chest discomfort, according to Shukri David, M.D., physician chair of the Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence at St. John Providence Health in Detroit. Shortness of breath and breaking out in a cold sweat are other symptoms. It’s important to know women can be present with symptoms not seen as often in men. These include nausea, fatigue and pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
3. Don’t hesitate to call 911. If you are having any of the above symptoms, don’t wait to see if they go away. Call 911 immediately. The longer you wait, the worse the heart attack will be. We have a saying: ‘Time is muscle.’” That means the longer you wait, the longer your heart is deprived of the oxygen and nutrients it needs – and the worse the damage.
4. Don’t drive to the ER; call an ambulance. Even if you have someone to drive you to the hospital, you are better off in an ambulance, David says. EMS sends electrocardiograms straight to us, so every hospital with this type of program activates its team, reducing the wait time from the field to the cath lab, where stents and angiograms are performed.
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